Asked why she had failed to raise the issue during a formal 50-minute bilateral meeting with Trump at the Hamburg Messehallen, as furious negotiations were still going on behind the scenes, the prime minister said: “I did bring the issue of climate change agreement up with President Trump.

“I have had a number of conversations with him while I’ve been here at the G20. What I did was encourage him to bring the United States back into the Paris agreement, and I continue to hope that’s what the United States will do.”

It came after the president promised May that the US was ready to strike a trade deal with the UK as soon as possible after Brexit. However, critics were quick to warn against taking Trump at his word. “I think it is political puffery. There will be no fast US-UK trade agreement,” said a former senior official at the IMF and in the Canadian government, who has dealt with the US in a major trade negotiation.

The G20 meeting saw a number of tense encounters between Trump and other world leaders, with a particular clash between him and the French delegation over climate change, but also tensions over protectionism and the overproduction of steel.

The final communique said: “We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris agreement.” It added: “The leaders of the other G20 members state that the Paris agreement is irreversible.”

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